Willem Dafoe, Jesse Plemons, and Margaret Qualley in Kinds of Kindness (2024)

‘Kinds of Kindness’ Teaser Breakdown and Synopsis — Plus Fan Reactions

Josh Lezmi
By Josh Lezmi
Willem Dafoe, Jesse Plemons, and Margaret Qualley in Kinds of Kindness (2024) | IMDb
Josh Lezmi
By Josh Lezmi
Willem Dafoe, Jesse Plemons, and Margaret Qualley in Kinds of Kindness (2024) | IMDb

The brief 46-second teaser for Kinds of Kindness opens with a purple challenger flying out of a parking lot (with the arrow on the ground pointing in the other direction), as a narrator begins to speak: “This is it. The moment of truth.” The engine revs in the background alongside the start of “Sweet Dreams” as the Searchlight Pictures logo flashes across the screen. Emma Stone is behind the wheel. The teaser gives us a little profile view of the Poor Things starlet as a smirk crawls across her face. Then we get a flash of Willem Dafoe, ever so briefly before (what appears to be) a corpse gets dragged into a room by an unknown individual. 

Flash again and we see Jesse Plemons (Love & Death, Killers of the Flower Moon) Margaret Qualley (Maid, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), and other a-listers pop onto the screen for blink-and-you-miss-them intervals: from a slap across the face to a body-licking spectacle, and then a screaming man…swimmers, a boat, a man falling from a wheelchair, a kiss, juicing an orange. Just tidbit after tidbit of seemingly unrelated moments until that same purple Challenger appears on the screen, drifting into a motel light as the narrator returns to state, “Isn’t it wonderful?” So, what’s going on here? What is this movie actually about?

From the acclaimed director behind Poor Things and The Favourite, Yorgos Lanthimos now brings us a triptych fable. The movie will follow three different characters on disparate yet interconnected journeys. The first follows a man without choice who tries to take control of his life. The second chronicles a policeman who is alarmed that his wife who went missing at sea has returned as a seemingly different individual. And, finally, we will follow a woman who is determined to find a special someone with unique abilities destined to become a spiritual leader. 

Lanthimos teamed up with the critically esteemed Efthimis Filippou to pen the screenplay; Filippou previously lent his writing talents to The Lobster, Dogtooth, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer. In addition to the actors listed above, the upcoming film also stars Euphoria favorite Hunter Schafer, Joe Alwyn of Conversations with Friends, Mamoudou Athie (The Front Runner, Unicorn Store), and Hong Chau (The Whale, The Menu, Downsizing). 

Kinds of Kindness premieres exclusively in theaters on June 21, 2024, and will likely snag some Oscars in 2025 if Lanthimos, as expected, puts out another award-worthy production alongside some actors he’s already seen success with. Lanthimos lovers have taken to X (formerly Twitter) to share their excitement: 

Josh is an entertainment writer and editor at Thought Catalog.